SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200916-20732-2147369756. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: GE CGP650SET1SS (36" GE cafe cooktop model CGP650SET1SS). Incident: I was using GE cooktop model CGP650SET1SS (serial GA709303Q). Upon turning on center burner, it threw a fireball at my face, cinging my throat. I couldn't event talk right for days after. The cooktop itself was smoking profusely and appeared to be on fire. I unplugged and turned off the gas and the fire fizzled out. I called GE consumer relations, explained how their product was dangerous and injured me. Even though product is out of warranty, I thought it was reasonable to replace it for free since it was unsafe. And they should be interested in taking the old unit back to figure out why it malfunctioned in a dangerous way. Instead they insisted on sending out a repair technician. It took over a month for technician to come out. When he did, he wanted to turn on the unit without replacing the center burner that exploded first. I refused to let him, as this is too dangerous to ourselves, the technician, and our home. It would be incredibly stupid to turn on a burner that previously exploded! GE is now responding by refusing to replace the item or even provide a significant discount. They seem to not care about consumer safety, the safety of their technicians, or reasonable customer service. I am reporting this in the hopes of providing more protection to other consumers and hopefully also getting them to take action to rectify this situation in a better and more responsible way. My reference number for consumer relations is: [REDACTED] Email I'm communicating to GE with is appliancesupport@geappliances.com I've talked to somebody named [REDACTED]. They still are refusing to